If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Anandtech: Hands On With The Acer Predator Helios 300 Special Edition

One of the more interesting laptop designs to come out of the Computex week was from Acer: its new Predator Helios 300 Special Edition was an eclectic mix of white and gold that made it stand out from the swathe of standard black and red looking gaming machines being announced and on the market. We had a recent chance to spend some time with the unit at an Acer UK event.

So to begin, the unit in front of me was a Core i5-8300H model with a 15.6-inch 1920x1080 IPS display with a GTX 1060 inside. The unit looks great, if you like white and gold, and it will be interesting to see how the white stands up to repeated use and cleaning. We were told that the chassis is made from some composite materials (which ones were not disclosed) which should reduce fingerprints and scratches incurred during normal use.

The display, while not going all the way to the edge, can get reasonably bright, was definitely useable in a dimly lit room. Viewing angles seemed solid as well. The webcam is above the screen, and to be honest the white surround of the display did not impinge on using the device.

The keyboard is basically a full sized keyboard, using full size arrow keys which is a definite plus. The amount of key travel, compared to say the Huawei Matebook X Pro, was larger which is a plus for my use. It is easy to spot that the WASD keys have a &lsquo;gold&rsquo; square on them. This is not a sticker, the keys themselves are colored this way. I feel like the key should be fully colored, rather than just a square (which sometimes looks off center), but I suppose it is easier to add the color after the fact. The key letters are actually cut aways from the keys as well. The function keys to adjust the brightness are in the arrow keys, with some of the F-key row for other functions. There are separate functions for music too. The downside of the keyboard though is the location of the power button &ndash; right next to the number pad. I often use the number pad for numbers and operational keys, so having the power button here is quite frustrating.

With the Core i5-8300H and the GTX 1060, there&rsquo;s going to be some heat with gaming, and Acer uses their dual fan system to help remove heat through the grated rear of the laptop. The fans can also reverse direction to help shift dust and blockages, and the way the system does this can be controlled through Acer&rsquo;s installed applications.

On the rear of the system, it looks like the 2.5-inch storage device and DRAM can be adjusted after purchase, due to two screwed down sections. In the device I was looking at, the system was using a 256GB Micron 1100 SSD, which is a mid-range SATA SSD, along with a Western Digital 1TB HDD.

The ports on the side seemed numerous, including an ethernet port, a HDMI port, several USB ports, and a card reader. There is also a USB Type-C, however power is supplied through a larger power brick using a circular connector.
When discussing the unit with the Acer reps here at the event, it seems like that the original Helios 300 got some good feedback however some of the retailers in the UK only got a few units of stock so there wasn&rsquo;t a lot of noise. The hope is that something like this special edition will stand out from the crowd.

Also alongside the Helios 300 SE will be a series of Predator related white and gold accessories. There&#39;s the backpack, the Predator Cestus 510 mouse, and the Predator Galea 500 headset.

Acer&rsquo;s Predator Helios 300 Special Edition laptop will be available later this year. The manufacturer did not disclose its estimated pricing or how many units will be produced.Related Reading

Anandtech: iBASE Lists C246 Motherboards for Intel Xeon E CPUs

iBASE has published specifications of its upcoming MB995VF-C246 motherboard aimed at entry-level/embedded servers and workstations that will support Intel&rsquo;s upcoming (but not yet announced) Xeon E processors. The mainboard generally resembles platforms for desktops, but due to positioning it boasts with enhanced durability, reliability, as well as legacy I/O capabilities.
The iBASE MB995VF-C246 motherboard is based on Intel&rsquo;s as-yet unannounced C246 PCH and therefore supports Xeon E processors. The mainboard relies on design originally developed for the MB995VF based on the Intel Q370 PCH, and according to the listing will also support 8th Gen Core i3/i5/i7 as well as Pentium CPUs for business desktops. Given its positioning, the motherboard fully supports iAMT 11 remote management, TPM 2.0, vPro, and iSMART features.

The MB995VF-C246 motherboard from iBASE is outfitted with a multi-phase VRM for CPU that is based on solid-state coils designed to sustain prolonged workloads. The platform carries four DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 64 GB of DDR4-2667 memory (either ECC or non-ECC), one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot for graphics cards, a PCIe 3.0 x4 for high-end SSDs, a PCIe 3.0 x1 for various add-on boards, one mini PCIe, as well as three PCI slots. Moving on to storage options. The MB995VF-C246 has six SATA ports, and one M.2-2280. The platform can support up to six SATA SSDs/HDDs as well as two PCIe/NVMe drives of different capacity.
When it comes to networking connectivity, the motherboard has two GbE controllers, and an M.2-2230 slot for a Wi-Fi card. As for general I/O, the MB995VF-C246 has four USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, five USB 3.1 Gen 1 headers, a USB 2.0 via a pin-header (internal port), a DVI-D output, a DisplayPort 1.2, an HDMI 2.0a, four RS232 ports, two RS232/422/485 connectors, and a 7.1-channel audio.

The iBASE MB995VF-C246 is positioned for embedded computing, which is why it has PCI slots (often used for outdated add-in cards) as well as various legacy ports. Meanwhile, presence of up-to-date slots and ports indicates that one can easily build a contemporary server or workstation using this motherboard.
iBASE guarantees a 15-year lifetime for its MB995VF motherboards, so people looking to build an embedded system based on these platforms can be assured that they will be able to procure these mainboards in the years to come. The new mainboards are expected to become available shortly.

A surprising no-show at this year&rsquo;s Apple World Wide Developer&rsquo;s Conference was any kind of hardware refresh for Apple&rsquo;s Mac products. While WWDC is first and foremost a software development show, it&rsquo;s also been a convenient event for Apple to announce lower-key refreshes of their existing hardware platforms, as the press and developers are already there and paying attention. So with the MacBook Pro family all but guaranteed to receive a refresh thanks to Intel&rsquo;s Coffee Lake launch, we had been expecting to see new MacBook Pros around then.
Instead Apple has gone in a slightly different direction (more on that in a sec) but the end result is the same. Today, roughly a month after WWDC, Apple is announcing a more substantial refresh of both the MacBook Pro 13-inch and MacBook Pro 15-inch. The combination of Intel&rsquo;s Coffee Lake processors and some of Apple&rsquo;s own innovations such as their T2 controller make this a potentially potent performance upgrade for Apple&rsquo;s professional-grade workhorses.

Sony has introduced its new Xperia XA2 Plus &lsquo;performance mainstream&rsquo; smartphone that is positioned above the rest of the Xperia XA2 series, but below the high-end XZ2 range. The new Xperia XA2 Plus is based on the same platform as other members of the family, the Snapdragon 630, yet it is outfitted with a large 6-inch 2160x1080 display featuring an 18:9 aspect ratio, and supports Sony&rsquo;s high-resolution audio.
The Sony Xperia XA2 Plus comes in a symmetric chassis with rounded edges made of anodized aluminum that resembles enclosures used by two other members of the family, but with significant changes on the front to fit in a 6-inch 18:9 display with a 2160&times;1080 resolution, which is bigger than screens used on other SKUs. To make the phone a bit more rugged, the Xperia XA2 Plus features Corning&rsquo;s Gorilla Glass 5 protection, an upgrade when compared to other XA2 models. As for dimensions, the phone is a bit larger and heavier than the Xperia XA2, but is a slightly smaller and lighter than the Xperia XA2 Ultra.

When it comes to internals, the Xperia XA2 Plus is based on Qualcomm&rsquo;s Snapdragon 630 SoC that packs eight Arm Cortex-A53 cores along with an Adreno 508 graphics core. The same chip powers other Xperia XA2 handsets, so the XA2 Plus has the same performance and connectivity features as its brethren. Meanwhile the Xperia XA2 Plus will exist in two versions, one featuring 4 GB of LPDDR4 memory and 32 GB eMMC storage another outfitted with 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB eMMC storage. In addition, there will be single SIM and dual SIM versions in select regions.

Imaging capabilities of the Xperia XA2 Plus are also similar to other members of the family: the handset features a 23 MP Exmor RS (f/2.0, 24mm, 1/2.3&rdquo;) sensor with ISO 12800 on the back as well as an 8 MP 120-degree sensor on the front. As for audio, the phone supports Sony&rsquo;s high-resolution audio and Sony&rsquo;s digital sound enhancement engine (DSEE HX), a first for a mid-range handset. For those who care, the Xperia XA2 Plus also has a 3.5-mm audio output.

The smartphone is outfitted with a 3580 mAh battery that supports Qualcomm&rsquo;s Quick Charge 3.0 as well as Qnovo Adaptive Charging technology. Sony does not disclose battery life of the phone, but it is probably comparable with the Xperia XA2 Ultra.

Sony will ship its Xperia XA2 Plus in late August 2018, likely to coincide with IFA. Sony says that the handset will be available in silver, black, gold, and green versions. As for pricing, the Xperia XA2 Plus will be positioned above the Xperia XA2 Ultra, which is now available for $390.Buy Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra Factory Unlocked on Amazon.com

Today Dell has introduced new and updated lineups in their Precision entry-level workstation lineup. In this case, Dell has brought forth the Precision 3930 Rack (1U workstation), Precision 3630 (tower), as well as the Precision 3430 Small Form Factor Tower. The lineup will use i3/i5/i7 and Xeon E 8th Generation Intel processors as well as professional graphics from the NVIDIA Quadro and AMD Radeon Pro Graphics.Dell 3930 Rack

To start, Dell&#39;s workstation racks have been in their portfolio since 2008 in 2U form. Dell says they love the rack format, but in most cases, it is overkill for the clients. The 2U racks previously used dual sockets with up to 56 cores, equipped with copious amounts of RAM, storage devices, and high-powered graphics. What Dell has done was to take the same architecture found in the mini-tower and placed it in a 1U sized rack. This way, users are able to move the desktop off the desk and increasing desk real estate which can be at a premium in many locations. Along with this shrink, prices start off lower as well. The 1U chassis itself uses a short-depth and narrow design for better rack density and a smaller footprint more suited for space-constrained workspaces with only a thin client sitting on the desk while this sits in the Data Center.

The 3930 Rack will offer users a single socket 1U rack solution with up to 20TB of storage including SAS, SATA, and PCIe interfaces. CPU options range from 8th Gen Intel Core processors in i3, i5, and i7, form along with Xeon processors from theE-2100 family. The platform uses dual channel UDIMM memory up to 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 Non-ECC (for Intel Core CPUs) and ECC (Xeon) RAM. Graphics options range from NVIDIA Quadro P2000 to P6000 cards for the mid-range to high-end while entry level consists of AMD Radeon Pro WX 4100 graphics or Quadro P400. A consumer level GTX 1080 is also an option.
Communications are handled by an integrated Intel GbE and Aquantia 10 GbE Ethernet connections along with additional single port and dual port with 10 GbE cards optional. Since this is a rack design that isn&rsquo;t intended to be on the desktop, remote access can be achieved with the optional Teradici PCoIP technology supporting dual and quad display zero clients.

Pricing on the Dell Precision 3930 Rack starts and $899 and will be available worldwide from July 26th.Dell Precision 3430 SFF Tower and 3630 Tower

The new Precision 3430 is a Small Form Factor tower measuring in with an internal capacity of only 8 liters with dimensions of 11.4&rdquo; x 3.65&rdquo; x 11.5&rdquo;. Dell says this size is over 40% smaller than competitors in the market. The design is intended for space constrained workspaces that still need workstation-class performance. This market includes entry-level CAD users and offer users limited expandability but good enough for weekend work according to Dell. The goal is to pull these users into the workstation market where cost can be prohibitive.

The small unit supports 8th Generation Intel Core (i3, i5, i7, Pentium) and Xeon processors along with 64GB of 2666 MHz DRAM. Like the rack system above, the box supports both non-ECC and ECC RAM depending on the processor used. Graphics solutions for the 3430 include options from both the AMD and NVIDIA camps with AMD Radeon RX Pro WX 2100/3100/4100 to NVIDIA Quadro cards in the P400, P620, and P100. The chassis itself allows for up to 55W of graphics support (mostly due to thermal requirements of SFF systems). On the storage front, the SFF tower supports both SATA and M.2 PCIe NVMe based SSDs for up to 6TB of internal storage.
Communications are managed by an integrated Intel I219-LM GbE controller with optional Intel network cards and wireless/Bluetooth support. There is also a faster option available in the Aquantia AQtion AQN-108 5/2.5 GbE NIC.
For I/O ports the systems come with two USB 2.0 ports, a USB 3.0 port, and USB 3.1 Type-C port along with a universal audio jack and an optional SD card reader. On the back, there are two more USB 2.0 ports (with SmartPower), four USB 3.0 ports, two PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse, as well as two DisplayPorts for video. There are options for Thunderbolt 3 connectivity as well.
The 3630 Tower differs in a few ways over its little brother, with the first being size. The 3630 measures in at 13.1&rdquo; x 6.95&rdquo; x 13.5&rdquo; which is slightly larger all around. This design, Dell claims, is 23% smaller than its predecessor and is aimed to offer greater expandability without sacrificing power. There are also a few details that are different like ports and audio controllers as well. But for all intents and purposes, the chassis is larger offering greater expandability and capacity.

To that end, the 3630 supports the same processors and offers a much more powerful range of graphics cards, up to 225W in total. Options range from AMD Radeon Pro WX2100 to WX7100 with some dual card configurations possible. On the NVIDIA side of things, the Quadro options range from the P400 to the dual P4000 cards. Consumer graphics solutions are also available (Radeon RX 580/NVIDIA GTX 1060 or GTX 1080). Storage capacity is also increased over the 3430 to 16TB also using SATA and M.2 PCIe NVMe based storage solutions. Front and rear panel ports are similar with the 3630 using a separate microphone and headphone jack versus the combo on the 3430.

Along with the other announcement today, Intel is also announcing that it will acquire a company called eASIC which develops FPGA-like design tools to roll out &lsquo;structured ASICs&rsquo;. These structured ASICs an intermediary between a full FPGA and a full ASIC that allow for a quick roll out time and cheaper production cost. Technically Intel has been using eASIC technology since at least 2015 in its custom Xeons, however today&rsquo;s announcement means that the eASIC team will become part of Intel&rsquo;s Programmable Solutions Group (PSG).

Aquantia on Wednesday started to sell the gamer edition of its AQtion AQN-107 multi-gig network card. As the name implies, the 10 GbE NIC is aimed at demanding gamers as well as enthusiasts who want to have a maximum network performance, but not at a cost of enhanced latency during gaming.
Aquantia&rsquo;s gamer edition AQtion AQN-107 card is based on the company&rsquo;s AQC107 (10 GbE) network controller that supports various BASE-T standards, including 100M, 1G, 2.5G and 5G over an RJ45 connector using Cat5e/Cat6 cabling. The card uses a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface and comes on a black reference design PCB featuring an aluminum heat spreader that &#39;emphasizes&#39; its gaming nature.
The key feature that differentiates gamer edition AQtion AQN-107 card from regular multi-gig network adapters from Aquantia is the company&rsquo;s in-house developed gaming prioritization software. This will seem similar to the software tools offered by the Rivet Networks Killer network controllers, however both solutions approach the issue differently internally. Right now, Aquantia has three levels of prioritization supported by its software, but the company continues to work on this product.
Aquantia demonstrated a gaming rig outfitted with its AQtion AQN-107 card as well as the software at Computex. After trying the setup out, we can confirm that the software works and manages to reduce latency when priority modes are enabled and network traffic is being directed at mulitple sources.

The Aquantia Gamer Edition AQtion AQN-107 10 GbE network card is currently available from Amazon for $89.99.
The market of gaming PCs is not the most important one for Aquantia, especially in the light of the fact that there are virtually no affordable consumer-grade multi-gig switches. This partly explains why the card is currently available only from Amazon and why Aquantia is selling it under its own brand. In the meantime, it is evident that the company needs to address the market of demanding consumers with its 10 GbE offerings in a bid to establish itself a name among gamers to ensure successful competition against other multi-gig players in the future.Buy Aquantia AQtion 10G Gaming NIC on Amazon.comRelated Reading

There&#39;s a lot of love for mini-ITX, and our next review is the ASRock Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac. This gaming-centric board offers users a number of features which make it highly competitive in the small-form-factor overclocking space at $180. Despite the small size, the board includes Thunderbolt 3, Intel-based Wi-Fi and LAN, USB 3.1 support, M.2 storage, and six SATA ports - a rarety on a small motherboard. If everything else goes right, it could be a good contender for a sharp build.

Anandtech: Toshiba’s 14 TB HDDs Now Available from Supermicro

Toshiba was the first maker of hard drives to announce a PMR-based 14 TB HDD last December and apparently it is the first company to start their commercial shipments. As of this week, Supermicro has qualified Toshiba&rsquo;s MG07-series HDDs with 12 TB and 14 TB capacities for use on select storage server platforms and is now offering the appropriate systems to customers. In addition to servers, the drives will be available from Supermicro&rsquo;s online store eventually.
Toshiba&rsquo;a MG07 enterprise-grade helium-filled HDDs featuring 14 TB and 12 TB capacities rely on nine and eight PMR platters respectively from Showa Denko, with ~1.56 TB capacity per platter. The drives feature a 7200 RPM spindle speed, a 256 MB cache buffer, and a SATA 6 Gbps interface, which is in line with other HDDs for nearline storage applications. Power consumption of Toshiba&rsquo;s 14 TB hard drive does not exceed 7.6 W, so it is drop-in compatible with virtually all backplanes and servers, but makers of such equipment still need to qualify the drives with their products to ensure their fine operation. Just like other enterprise-grade HDDs, Toshiba&rsquo;s 12 TB and 14 TB offerings feature enhancements to improve their durability and reliability, including top and bottom attached motors, RVFF, environmental sensor, and so on.
Supermicro has qualified Toshiba&rsquo;s MG07-series drives with a number of its SuperStorage (SSG) systems, including its top-of-the-range SSG-6049P-E1CR45H/SSG-6049P-E1CR45L 4U machines based on two Intel Xeon Scalable processors with up to 56 cores in total and supporting up to 45 hot-swap 3.5-inch HDDs and up to six NVMe SSDs (connected to PCIe lanes). When fully populated with Toshiba&rsquo;s 14 TB hard drives, such servers can store 630 TB of data on HDDs and terabytes more on flash drives. Customers interested in maximum HDD storage density can now order SuperStorage machines equipped with Toshiba&rsquo;s 14 TB HDDs from Supermicro.

Brief Specifications of Toshiba&#39;s MG07ACA HDDs

Capacity

14 TB

12 TB

P/N

4K Native

MG07ACA14TA

MG07ACA12TA

512e

MG07ACA14TE

MG07ACA12TE

Platters

9

8

Heads

18

16

Recording Technology

Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) / Conventional

RPM

7200 RPM

Interface

SATA 6 Gbps

DRAM Cache

256 MB

Persistent Write Cache

Yes

Helium-Filling

Yes

Sequential Data Transfer Rate (host to/from drive)

260 MB/s

~250 MB/s

MTBF

2.5 million

Rated Annual Workload

550 TB

Acoustics (Seek)

unknown

Power Consumption

Random read/write

7.6 W

? W

Idle

4.6 W

? W

Warranty

5 Years

Toshiba&rsquo;s MG07-series hard drives are rated for 550 TB average annualized workloads, 2.5 million hours MTBF, and are covered with a five-year warranty. With this level of reliability, it is not surprising that the drives are rather expensive. German retailer sysGen.de charges &euro;619 w/VAT ($725) for a 14 TB version and at press time was the only company in the world to offer this HDD (this does not mean it has the drives in stock). Meanwhile, per-drive prices from Supermicro will depend on volumes and other factors.Related Reading

Lian Li has started to sell its new PSU cable featuring addressable RGB lighting. The cable is now available on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean at an introductory price below $40/&euro;40. Going forward, the unit will get a bit more expensive, but will stay below $50/&euro;50.
Announced at Computex last month, the the Lian Li Strimer (pronounced &#39;Streamer&#39;) is a light emitting module featuring RGB LEDs that can be attached to Lian Li&rsquo;s white PSU cable and create an impression that the wires are glowing. The Strimer has a connector to attach to motherboards that can control addressable RGB lighting and works with all popular motherboards brands as well as their software. Alternatively, the Strimer can be plugged to a special module that features 10 pre-programmed lighting options and can be controlled manually.

Lian Li&rsquo;s Strimer module and its white cable are compatible with all ATX PSUs available on the market and the installation procedure does not seem to be too complex.
The Lian Li Strimer is now available from Amazon and Newegg in the US, Caseking in Germany, and OcUK in the UK. For a limited time the product will cost $5/&euro;5/&pound;5 below its MSRP, but after that its price will increase to $45/&euro;45/&pound;40.